For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 14, 2022

Beeserker

Pest inspector

your turn, kids, to get the second wasp nest

I’ve found that non-chlorinated automotive “Brake-kleen©” drops wasps and hornets dead on the spot. Plus it’s non-flamable.Follow me for other pest control tips….

This looks like an exercise in how not to get rid of a wasp or hornet’s nest. If I were in pest control, I would clip this comic strip and put a sign next to it saying, “How not to do this.”

1. Don’t stand directly underneath a hornet’s nest when spraying. Their entrance and exit point is a single hole at the bottom of the nest, and you don’t want to be standing there should they all come pouring out.

2. Stay off ladders: If you’re suddenly swarmed, you could fall off and sustain serious injury. Treat high-up nests with long-distance spray, or call in a professional.

3. If a hornet’s nest is too big or in a hard-to-reach place, it is time to call in a professional. A good rule of thumb is that if the nest is smaller than a tennis ball, it may be safe to remove on your own

4. Using fire to remove a wasp nest is a very dangerous task and is not a successful way to eradicate the wasps. This is because it doesn’t kill all the wasps. It can lead to the remaining wasps in the nest becoming violent, as well as the wasps out foraging for food, resulting in them attacking you and any bystanders.

5. Wear protective clothing when you search for and treat the nest. At a minimum, wear a thick, long-sleeved shirt, pants, thick leather or rubber gloves, and boots. A beekeeper’s veil can protect your head and face. If you can’t access a veil, you should wear protective goggles and a hat that covers your ears.

6. Never attempt to remove a wasp’s nest during the daylight hours. You do it early in the morning or at night, when the wasps are least active.

This strip (with the kids standing by with no protection) reminds me of when Himself and I cleared a middling sized wasp nest from my mother’s garden. I was all kitted up, he was standing by with an active hose, the environment was cleared for us, and then I realised my elderly mother, in a sundress, was standing right behind me ‘so I can see what happens’.

One can of wasp spray ( the long range stream type I hope) and they’ll be gone by tomorrow.

I had a hornet nest in my furnace air intake. I wore a lot of thick clothing and used a shop vac to suck the hornets and their nest out. I got four stings and a vacuum canister full of angry hornets. Just to be sure I waited a full month before I emptied the vacuum.

Wouldn’t it be easier (and safer) just to call an exterminator??

wearing a plastic bag on your head is not recommended.

Lynn’s Comments:

This actually happened…pretty much the way you see it here. Yes, it’s the everyday stuff that makes a comic strip fun to do. These are the times when we all wish that someone had taken a photo!

The safes way to knock down the nest is to use a hose with a nozzle sprayer set to the jet setting. Burn barrel legal?

I spray them good and leave them up. Why? Because if I take it down another will be built. If I leave an abandoned one, they stay that way.

I found one about the size of a watermelon in my attic. I closed the door, told everyone the attic was off limits and left it alone.

Okay. Let’s see how much you have learned. You kids go tend to that. I’ll check on you in an hour.

Why the hell not just leave the wasps’ nest alone? They have as much right to exist as we do. And if you leave them in peace they’ll leave you be too. Wasps are predators that feed on plant and crop-destroying insects and caterpillars, act as excellent pollinators and help disperse seeds, among many other useful functions.

Ah, but as I explain it, left alone on/in MY house, they sting ME for the crime of trying to maintain my property. I’m allergic to wasp stings and swell up mightily. They can make nests in the trees and I’ll leave them alone.

I don’t think it’s a good idea to burn a plastic trash bag. Could produce toxic chemicals.

Idiot.

A burning barrel! Where do they live?

Ripped out some carpet, threw it in the backyard for disposal. Unfortunately the wasps found it first and made it their condo.

Usually the spray wipes them all out, but then I’ve never seen a nest at my place that big. Burning is illegal in the area where I live. I suppose if I were in a rural area it wouldn’t be.

To Bee, or Not to Bee, Is that a question?

Poor Dad. He needs to teach Mike some ‘household’ chores.

We have red wasp and yellow jacket nests around here.

I wait until twilight, they cannot fly in the gathering darkness!

Okay, so the moral is read the label. Doesn’t the wasp killer label say to wait 10 to 15 minutes to be sure the wasps are dead? (Rhetorical question. I am sure since I used the stuff before.)

… or….. just leave them alone…respect their space and they won’t bother you…then when it late Fall or Winter…dispose of the mud nest…. they are pollinators just like honey bees….

Wasps eat bugs. Leave them alone.

y i k e s !

Unless the wasps build right next to an area I need to frequent and disturbing them would likely result in me being stung, I generally leave them alone and they return the favor. And when I do have to deal with them, I simply knock down the nest and then calmly walk away. No problem, but best to catch it early on when it’s small and just a few wasps or hornets. Unfortunately, there are situations where they probably have to be exterminated, but the folks who commented on using brake & carb cleaner, WD40 and the like…seriously? Just nasty & gross. Do you dump old oil in the back yard or down sewer drains, also?

Several years ago while mowing I discovered a large bald-face hornets nest in an apple tree, late in the season, they were all over the fallen fruit below. I left them be, they die out after the first freezes, and I then lopped the branch with the nest intact and hung it in the shed, it was a work of art and source of conversation for many years.

Down here in Texas we have red wasps and yellowjackets, their nests are open and easy to spray with wasp killer. We also have the underground hornets which are a bit trickier to exterminate.

And John is probably thinking, “Aw, son of a bee!”

Why would they kill the bees??? We need bees on this planet! This comic is soooo out of date. We need to do everything to save them. Ugh, sorry for my frustration

Just leave them bee.

We have occasional wasp nests here at our condo complex. We usually find them early when they are around the size of a golf ball. Long distance spray works just fine and we leave the nests in place to discourage new “tenants”.

Nothing worse than a hornets nest when it’s been kicked…

Oh great! THANKS Michael. :P

This reminds me of me. So let me ask you: What are some jobs that you are too stubborn (or cheap) to pay someone else to do, but you REALLY SHOULD pay someone else to do (like getting rid of a wasp’s nest)? Mine always seem to involve lifting something heavy in the garage or in the yard, and then moaning about my back for a few days after.

The drug dealer who lived next door to me decided to take out a wasp nest on MY house with a Tiki torch. I was lucky the idiot didn’t set my house on fire. They were a trip and a half to live next door to.

D’OH!

If Michael goes out to dispose of the other nest, Rhetta is going to dump him. Here is how:

1.) Michael, as usual, screws it up.

2.) The wasps attack him, stinging him multiple times.

3.) Michael reacts to the stings, looking like the Michelin Tire Man.

4.) There is no strip where Rhetta is seen with a grotesque looking Michael. Put off by his odd appearance, she dumps him.

I read a post online about how one person “made friends” with a local wasp. I’m dubious…

Should have waited for night time.

They actually LABELED it “Burning Barrel”??

Me,,I call this “never send an amateur dentist to do a professional’s job”. I’d have to grow extra fingers and toes to count the number of things done wrong here.